In "A Rose for Emily," what similarities exist between Richard Cory and Emily Grierson?

Emily Grierson is the focal character in William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily." Richard Cory is the topic of Edwin Arlington Robinson's poem "Richard Cory." The two characters are alike in that they were people of interest to their communities, but the townspeople didn't really know them intimately. In both cases, after the character's death, the townspeople received a shocking revelation.

Richard Cory was of interest to his community because he was wealthy and attractive, yet friendly. He didn't seem to despise the lower-class citizens who lined the streets; he greeted them with a polite "Good-morning." Emily Grierson was of interest to citizens of Jefferson because she was the last member of an old and dignified family. Although she wasn't sociable, her reclusiveness made people more interested in her because she was a mystery.

The people from whose perspective the poem is written did not know Richard Cory intimately. He was one to watch and give a passing greeting to; the townspeople envied him, but they didn't understand what was going on in his personal life or his psyche. In the same way, the townspeople in Miss Emily's town weren't close to her. Some children took painting lessons from her for a while, and the aldermen and the Baptist pastor called on her (without achieving their purposes), but she didn't take part in the social life of the community. No one understood what was going on in her head, although some suspected she might have the mental illness that ran in her family.

Richard Cory's suicide was certainly a shock to the people in his town. Although the poem doesn't say so, we can infer those who had envied him would have been surprised that someone who seemed to have everything going for him would take his own life. He obviously was not as happy as he seemed. Similarly, upon her death, Miss Emily's neighbors were shocked to find that she had murdered Homer Barron and had apparently been sleeping with his corpse for years.

Both Richard Cory and Miss Emily were people whose towns liked to observe them but whom people didn't really know. Each harbored a secret side that was revealed only after death.

The townspeople look at Richard Cory, and they see someone who "was everything to make [them] wish that [they] were in his place."

They envy him as a result of his status and money and what they imagine to be his lifestyle. He is almost like a local celebrity. Miss Emily's town feels similarly; her movements are noted, remembered, and recorded. Even when she dies, the "whole town [goes] to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house." She is a "fallen monument," and at another time, she is "an idol." Miss Emily and Richard both seem out of reach and larger than life, as though they are made of different stuff than other people; they seem untouchable. It is only after Miss Emily's father's death, when the town learns that she is actually poor, that they can "pity" her: "She had become humanized." Likewise, it is only after Richard Cory's suicide that he can become human to his community. While Emily is a "monument" or an "idol," Richard "glitter[s] when he walk[s]" and possesses "every grace." In their untouchability, however, no one seems to realize how desperately sad and lonely they are.

Compare and contrast "A Rose for Emily" and "Richard Cory".

In both Faulkner's short story and Robinson's poem, we are introduced to colorful small-town characters who've become local celebrities in their own right.

In the small Southern town of Jefferson, Mississippi, Miss Emily Grierson was, until her death, the last surviving link between the town and its supposedly more glorious past. As such, the local townsfolk put Miss Emily on something of a pedestal. They overlooked her eccentricities and gave her a pass when it came to paying property taxes.

As it turned out, there was a lot more to Miss Emily than met the eye. After her death, the skeletal remains of her lover, Homer Barron, are discovered in a bridal suite. It seems that Miss Emily just couldn't let Homer go, and so she killed him.

In “Richard Cory,” another local small-town celebrity is revealed to have a dark side. On the face of it, Richard Cory has everything a man could want. He's handsome, rich, well-mannered, and exceedingly popular among the people of the town. And yet, one night, completely out of the blue and without rhyme or reason, Richard Cory goes home and commits suicide. Unlike Miss Emily, we're never given a reason for Richard's behavior. But at the very least we can safely conclude that there was something going on in his mind that was sharply at odds with his outward appearance and behavior.

The figures of Miss Emily Grierson and Richard Cory are used by their respective creators to pull back the respectable facade of small-town American life to reveal the darker truth behind it.